Dubai Metro terminal station set to open on March 11

Jebel Ali Station, the terminal destination on the Red Line of the Dubai Metro, will open on Friday March 11, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said on Saturday.

The launch will increase the total number of stations opened to 27 stations.

The station has a total capacity of handling 11,000 passengers per hour per direction, the RTA said in a statement.

Mattar Al Tayer, chairman of the Board and executive director of the RTA, said the station would serve the Jebel Ali Industrial Area which is the home to about 6,600 companies employing about 129,000 employees.

"As Jebel Ali Station is located at the terminal point of the Red Line, the rail track of trains in operation is extended by 9km to reach 53km," he said.

The RTA will operate 27 trains in the morning peak hours and 29 trains in the evening peak hours with the interval between train services ranging from 6 to 8 minutes in the morning peak period, and from 5 to 6 minutes in the evening peak period.

Al Tayer said the number of people riding the metro in January and February topped 9.3 million.

In 2010 the metro lifted a total of 38.888 million passengers and the current daily average is about 149,000 people, according to the RTA Statistics Office.